Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain and novelist Scott Turow are the speakers featured in the upcoming 2010-11 season of the long-running Fredericksburg Forum, hosted by the University of Mary Washington.
The series will kick off Family Weekend on Thursday, September 23, 2010 with Bourdain, a television host, author and chef, followed by Turow, a best-selling suspense novelist, on Thursday, March 17, 2011. Each program will be held at 8 p.m. in the university’s Dodd Auditorium, located in George Washington Hall.
Anthony Bourdain
As host of the popular Travel Channel’s travel and food series, “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” Bourdain explores exotic places worldwide seeking authentic experiences in foods that flavor global cultures.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Bourdain is a 28-year veteran of professional kitchens, having worked as a dishwasher, line cook and chef. He previously ran kitchens at New York City’s Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue and Sullivan’s.
Bourdain’s expose of New York restaurants, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” published in The New Yorker magazine in 1999, garnered enormous attention in the United States and the United Kingdom and formed the basis of his memoir, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.” In 2002, the Food Network broadcast a 22-part series in which Bourdain traveled the world in search of “extreme cuisine.” The highly popular series currently is being re-broadcast on the Food Network. The resulting book, “A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal,” became a best-seller and won the 2002 Guild of Food Writers Award for Food Book of the Year.
Bourdain also is author of “The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Trim, Scraps, and Bones,” in which he serves up stories from his worldwide misadventures, including the best of his previously uncollected nonfiction and new, never-before-published material. His latest book, “No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach,” published in 2007, is an illustrated chronicle of his travels through 28 countries.
Currently, he is working on three books, including “Medium Raw,” a mysterious non-fiction work to be released in summer 2010.
Scott Turow
Scott Turow is author of eight best-selling novels: “Presumed Innocent,” “The Burden of Proof,” “Pleading Guilty,” “The Laws of Our Fathers,” “Personal Injuries” and “Reversible Errors.” His latest novel, published in 2005, “Ordinary Heroes,” chronicles the saga of an Army lawyer on the European battleground during World War II.
He also has written two non-fiction books, “One L,” about his experience as a law student, and “Ultimate Punishment,” a reflection on the death penalty. His novella, “Limitations,” was published as a paperback in November 2006 following its serialization in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. He is a frequent contributor to publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy and The Atlantic.
Turow’s books have won a number of literary awards, including the Heartland Prize in 2003 for “Reversible Errors” and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 2004 for “Ultimate Punishment.” His books have been translated into more than 25 languages and have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
Turow continues to work as an attorney. He has been a partner in the Chicago office of
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, a national law firm, since 1986, concentrating on white
collar criminal defense, while also devoting a substantial part of his time to pro bono
matters. In one such case, he represented Alejandro Hernandez in the successful appeal that
preceded Hernandez’s release after nearly twelve years in prison – including five on death
row – for a murder he did not commit.
Fredericksburg Forum is a community-sponsored program underwritten by season ticket sales that brings nationally known speakers to the Fredericksburg community and the university. Tickets for the 2010-11 season, which cover both programs, are $60 for general admission, $75 for orchestra seating and $100 for patron seating, which includes a post-event reception with the speakers.
For ticket information, contact the Office of University Events and Conferencing at (540) 654-1065.